"It's "bure din" for India if SL can dare to flash eyes to India as it hs on fishermen's issues," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said in a series of tweets.
"It seems the #56InchChest was only for Indian voters and not for foreign threats," he said in another tweet.
Singvi also criticised Wickramasinghe for his remarks and said he does not "deserve" to be Sri Lanka's PM if he cannot differentiate between intruders and straying fishermen.
"If Sri Lankan PM cannot differentiate between intruders & straying fishermen & finds shooting as only option, he doesn't deserve to be PM!" he tweeted.
Congress General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed expressed shock over Ranil's statement. "On the eve of PM Modi's tour to Sri Lanka, its PM says if Indian fishermen will enter our territory we will shoot them."
"A lasting situation should be found, no extreme action should be taken by SL defence forces," Anand Sharma, another Congress spokesperson, posted on Twitter.
Alleging that Indian fishermen were taking away the livelihood of Northern Lanka fishermen, he told a Tamil TV channel that, "If someone tries to break into my house, I can shoot. If he gets killed...Law allows me to do that."
Talking about the fishermen issue, he said, "As far as I'm concerned, I have very very strong lines. This is our waters...Fishermen of Jaffna should be allowed to fish. We stopped them from fishing, that's why the Indian fishermen came in, they are willing to have a deal...Let's have a reasonable deal. But not at the expense of the income of the Northern Fishermen...No.
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